Whilst I agree with most of what you are saying here, if you are a good salesman, with a proven track record, then sell yourself to the business you are working for, and get salaried. Companies would kill to keep good salesmen.

A top flight double glazing sales agent wouldn't entertain a salaried deal with reduced commission rates. All of the large companies' top earners are way in excess of 100k per annum commission only.

After a brief phone call with his boss they would do them for £5000 if I let them take photo's for their website.

It used to be a sign outside / photos for the brochure etc., total BS. IIRC sales staff/dicks are able take about 40% off the opening figure because of the above, then there is another 40% to play with which tapers commission 1% for every 5% off the price, down to no commission once you've taken the full 40% off.

[quote=VRSAndy]I had a well known company in to quote me for the whole house doing. First fugure was £22,000 but they would do them for £11,000 if i signed then and there. I said no not a chance. After a brief phone call with his boss they would do them for £5000 if I let them take photo's for their website. Again I said no as I only wanted a quote and wasn't going to sign anything then and there. After a half hour of sitting in his car the sales guy came back with a piece of paper with the figure of £2650 written on it and a big grin on his face saying his boss will do a special deal for us. How the fk do they get down to £2650 from £22,000????[/quot

It's known in the trade as "f***ing the price". It's a totally ludicrous quote way below actual cost to mess things up for following salesmen. It's left with the buyer when it's obvious he's not prepared to buy on the night, and will mean other companies' quotes will look high.

I worked for three different companies over 3 years, one being a "local" and the other 2 nationals. Nobody I ever worked with (despite their bragging and gobsh*te attitude) would have made over £25k, even the manager. It was all BS.

I worked for three different companies over 3 years, one being a "local" and the other 2 nationals. Nobody I ever worked with (despite their bragging and gobsh*te attitude) would have made over Â£25k, even the manager. It was all BS.

You obviously worked in poorly performing branches, of which there are plenty. If the Manager was on 25k, their reps were going skint. Top managers can earn in excess of 150k, some more than 200k. It is not BS, but I understand that you might think it was if all you had to go on was the people that you came into contact with, rather than the bigger picture.

You obviously worked in poorly performing branches, of which there are plenty. If the Manager was on 25k, their reps were going skint. Top managers can earn in excess of 150k, some more than 200k. It is not BS, but I understand that you might think it was if all you had to go on was the people that you came into contact with, rather than the bigger picture.

Fair point. It was all "you can make really good money here" but they were all driving round in 10=year old cars and wore Burtons suits. The company plan revolved around a canvassing team who were just a gang of knuckledragging yobs, bone idle and no interest in the job. The manager was constantly talking up the career opportunities, but nobody there had an IQ above 100. (I spent most of the time at one place, now closed down).

You may find it improbable, but I can categorically assure you without question that it's a cast iron fact.

You know what changes 'stuff you say' into 'fact'?

Evidence.

Got any? I'd love to see some!

I understand your scepticism, but I can assure you that my credentials on this subject are about as strong as you can get. I can't really see how I could provide evidence, without naming the company or individuals in question though, which could obviously get rather messy. I have no reason to lie. I'm not trying to provide positive propaganda in the hope that I may tempt some of you to become double glazing sales people. I'm no longer in that line of work.

I understand your scepticism, but I can assure you that my credentials on this subject are about as strong as you can get. I can't really see how I could provide evidence, without naming the company or individuals in question though, which could obviously get rather messy. I have no reason to lie. I'm not trying to provide positive propaganda in the hope that I may tempt some of you to become double glazing sales people. I'm no longer in that line of work.

Naming a company, for which salesman earn over £100k/year, could get messy?

I understand your scepticism, but I can assure you that my credentials on this subject are about as strong as you can get. I can't really see how I could provide evidence, without naming the company or individuals in question though, which could obviously get rather messy. I have no reason to lie. I'm not trying to provide positive propaganda in the hope that I may tempt some of you to become double glazing sales people. I'm no longer in that line of work.

Naming a company, for which salesman earn over £100k/year, could get messy?

Why?

I won't name the company that I was involved with, but the fact remains across all of the following.......

My windows are being replaced right now. The salesman did the whole phoning his boss thing and we said we were very keen but wanted to talk about it overnight and would let him know in the morning, he offered us £3,000 off to sign that evening, we resisted and he phoned us the next day and offered a further £1,000 off, so we agreed. We phoned up 10 days after signing the contract and cancelled it. This was for a legitimate reason, not just to get more money off. They called us and offered us a further £500 off and said there was absolutely no more that they could discount. The original quote for all of our windows was £12,000 (after discounts!), we are now paying £6,500.

My point is, sign up and cancel within the cooling off period, they will go down to their minimum price to get you back.

My windows are being replaced right now. The salesman did the whole phoning his boss thing and we said we were very keen but wanted to talk about it overnight and would let him know in the morning, he offered us £3,000 off to sign that evening, we resisted and he phoned us the next day and offered a further £1,000 off, so we agreed. We phoned up 10 days after signing the contract and cancelled it. This was for a legitimate reason, not just to get more money off. They called us and offered us a further £500 off and said there was absolutely no more that they could discount. The original quote for all of our windows was £12,000 (after discounts!), we are now paying £6,500.

My point is, sign up and cancel within the cooling off period, they will go down to their minimum price to get you back.

Correct. As long as they are not already at their bottom price, or you get a poorly performing manager that doesn't bother phoning his cancellation, which can happen.

Well it is an incredibly skilled and massively important job carrying a huge amount of responsibility, so I suppose it could be true...

It is true Ari, the vast majority don't, but the top performers do.

It's not just the skill/complexity of the job, it's also how much money that role makes the company - if the salesman is bringing in £1.5M in sales every year for the company, with a 50% profit margin in that then it'll be easily worth while paying the salesman £100k a year.

Compare that to a manufacturing company with similar sales but much lower profit margin and they can't pay the same sort of salaries, so you wouldn't be surprised to see the directors earning less...

In the mid 1990's I was on £40,000 pa commission only. As a manager my over ride gained me another £10k or so.

I would say the top managers with the best team could be on £100,000 but it would be one or two, certainly not the norm.

The best money came from selling finance with protection. No surprise there with the current PPI debacle.

Maximum commission in my day was 17.5% for a self generated sale. 10% for company generated. This reduced the further through the discount structure you went. 20% discount would equate to halving your commission.

It's a very tough job, very few can stick it out, but those who can and do it well are richly rewarded. I would regularly work over 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, plus bank holidays. To give you an idea of attrition rates, when we did the sums one year, we started with 120 sales people and took around 700 new ones on during the course of a year, to end up with 122. Most last less than a month. I worked my way over around 15 years from Sales Agent, to Sales Manager, to Regional Sales Manager, to Divisional Sales Manager, to Sales Director.